Olyroos go down to Japan

The Olyroos have gone down to Japan 4-0 in their final group C match of the AFC U-22 Championship in Muscat last night.

The Olyroos have gone down to Japan 4-0 in their final group C match of the AFC U-22 Championship in Muscat last night.

With an unassailable lead at the top of group C going into the match, Olyroos Head Coach Aurelio Vidmar made a large number of changes to the starting line-up and handed the captain-s armband to Jason Geria.

Japan had the better of the early exchanges as Yajima flashed an effort wide after just four minutes before only a perfectly timed last-ditch tackle by Jason Geria denied Takuya Kida.

The Olyroos had their first chance after 17 minutes as Japanese goalkeeper Daichi Sugimoto failed to hold Stefan Mauk-s shot, but fortunately for the custodian when the rebound eventually found its way to Dylan Tombides, Naomichi Ueda was on hand to block the striker-s shot at the near post.

Japan took full advantage a minute later as Shoya Nakajima-s low skimming shot from the edge of the area beat Olyroos goalkeeper Jack Duncan.

Six minutes later Nakajima turned provider to double Japan-s lead as he set up Shinya Yajima.

Japan-s third came in the last minute of the first half after Ryosuke Yamanaka-s left wing cross was turned into his own net by Olyroos defender Corey Brown at the far post.

Three minutes into the second half Japan scored their fourth after Christopher Ikonomidis was adjudged to have handled the ball in the box as the midfielder attempted to block Yajima-s cross. Nakajima dispatched the resulting penalty to complete his brace.

Ikonomidis came close to making amends for his error with just over 15 minutes remaining, but Kyohei Yoshino-s sliding block halted any chance of retribution.

Vidmar was obviously disappointed with the score line after the match but has happy with the lessons learnt.

“It was again important for us to make changes to see that the players can play at this level,” said Vidmar.

“The first 20 minutes were OK and we had some good occasions, but after the early goal we really struggled.

“Japan made it difficult for us with the extra man in midfield and we found it difficult to play in the tight areas.

“It was not the intention to take it easy. We had a discussion that even though the match had no bearing on the result we still wanted to play at a high level.

“It looked like some of the players were fatigued as a lot of these players don-t play a lot of football. They need to try and get through when it is difficult. No game at international level is easy and tonight was no exception,” concluded Vidmar.

The Olyroos will now face Saudi Arabia on Sunday evening (5:00pm local, 12am AEDT) in the Quarter Finals of the AFC U-22 Championship at the Royal Oman Police Stadium, Muscat.